Snow survey results reveal more of the same: Drought

Snow fell as low as the foothills Tuesday, but, drought is still very much on the horizon.

The Department of Water Resources conducted another snow survey Tuesday and the results echo what's been predicted so far this year: A long dry summer.

Spring is here. Snow will melt. There won't be much snow to melt.

After adding up both rainfall and snowpack, only 32 percent of average water content is available for California.

"We're already seeing farmland fallowed and cities scrambling for water supplies," said DWR Director Mark Cowin in a press release this afternoon.

"We can hope that conditions improve, but time is running out and conservation is the only tool we have against nature's whim."

December and January were "bone dry," DWR said, and February and March rain and snow were not enough to bring the state out of a three-year drought.

The snow usually peaks at this time of year before snowmelt begins. In the northern mountains, the snowpack is at 23 percent of normal. The central and southern Sierra readings were 38 and 31 percent of normal, the release states.

"This is dismal news for farms and cities that normally depend on the snowpack — often called California's largest reservoir — for a third of their water. And reservoirs are not making up the difference," DWR continued.

Manual snow surveys are taken around the first of the month from January through May. The measurement for the year will be taken May 1.

Reservoir levels

• Lake Oroville on the State Water Project is at 49 percent of its 3.5 million acre-foot capacity, 64 percent of historic average.

• Shasta Lake on the federal Central Valley Project, is at 48 percent of its 4.5 million acre-foot capacity, 60 percent of historical average.

• San Luis Reservoir, an important south-of-delta reservoir for both water systems, is at 42 percent of its 2 million acre-foot capacity, 46 percent of average for this time of year.

Water allocations

DWR has set its allocation of State Water Project water at zero. The only previous zero allocation (water delivery estimate) was for agriculture in the drought year of 1991, but cities that year received 30 percent of requested amounts.

The State Water Project provides water to 29 public agencies serving more than 25 million people and one million acres of irrigated farmland.

For 2013 the final allocation was 35 percent, for more than 4 million acre-feet of water.

One acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons, or enough water for four people for a year.

Previous allocations included:

• 2012, 65 percent

• 2011, 80 percent

• 2010, 50 percent

• 2009, 35 percent

• 2008, 60 percent

The last 100 percent allocation was in 2006.

The DWR press release states that 2014 is on track to be California's fifth or sixth driest year, with its final ranking to be determined.